[ad_1] Lots of WordPress site owners see their content as more than information – it’s money. Taking your hard work and charging for it is a natural progression for many. Because the ecosystem is able to help you bolt on almost any functionality you need, a WordPress paywall is straightforward to implement. You’ll know a paywall through lots of different names, but regardless, it lets you restrict access to your content unless a user pays up. The form of this payment doesn’t have to be cash though: emails, social media mentions, and more can be the currency. There are lots of plugins to help you implement all manner of paywalls on your site too – good news if you have a specific need in mind. In this article, we’ll look at a few options to help you create a WordPress paywall. Before this though, we’re going to give you the lowdown on what a paywall is, the positives and perils to consider, and how to choose the right style of paywall for your site. What a Paywall Is In short, a paywall is a way to restrict access to content on your site. You’ll see this type of content restriction have different names depending on the use case, branding of the company, and more. For example, you might see this called a content locker, gated content, and other terms. It all helps you achieve the same goal. Your content sits on your site as normal, while a plugin locks a certain set of users out of the content you set. You’ll often find this sort of restriction suits informational content, such as a course or tutorial style blog. In contrast, you could also use a WordPress paywall for time-limited and relevant content, such as news and current affairs. Later on, we’ll talk about the different ways you can implement a WordPress paywall. For now, let’s discuss the benefits something like this can give you. Why a Paywall Is Fantastic For Monetizing Your Content and Cultivating a User Community You can see the evolution of self-hosted WordPress through the companion subscription site, WordPress.com. This platform has a free tier for users, which harks back to the early days of blogging: The reason this is relevant is because lots of these blogs went from being personal diary entries to information hubs. At some point, the blogs with heavy traffic and users began to monetize their content. This precipitated the evolution of WordPress from a blogging platform into a Content Management System (CMS). When these sites switch to a premium subscription model, the users (or some of them) will come along for the ride. However, it’s a fallacy to think that a paywall will decimate traffic and income. It might seem counter-intuitive, but a paywall can give you a greater sense of community and better quality traffic. Here’s why: The new users you bring in will want to be there, because they have paid to do so. Your existing users will offer greater loyalty to your brand and site, again because they are paying to stick around. Combined, you have two groups of users who see enough value in your content that they will shell out for it. This gives more value to any hits you get behind the paywall, and drips through to your comments sections, social media engagement and promotion, and much more. However, there are some definite negatives to consider if you want to implement a WordPress paywall. We’ll go over some of these next. The Drawbacks of Using a Paywall for Your WordPress Website You’ll want to note a few of the cons when it comes to WordPress paywalls. No system is perfect, and this one comes with its own unique challenges: First, you will have less traffic. However, as we note in the previous section, the numbers hitting your site will be of a higher-quality. Because that traffic expects more from your content, you’ll have to deliver. This can change how you create and deliver content, and will also affect your expenditure. You’ll have to mind that you don’t affect your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) when you implement your paywall. Because the visibility of this content is less, you’ll see fewer backlinks as a result. Advertising on your site can go either way. On the one hand, your paywall and resultant lower traffic might mean ad revenue isn’t as straightforward to come by. However, ads within locked content should perform well because it will offer high targeting. We’d argue that the positives outweigh the negatives in most cases. In fact, you’d likely already know if you want to use a paywall, or if one isn’t right for you. For instance, if your site’s revenue is based around advertising, a paywall doesn’t make much sense. For the classic blog transforming into an information site, you’ll likely want to consider content restriction. How to Choose a WordPress Paywall Model and Architecture for Your Site As you might expect, there are different types of paywall you can implement, and in some cases you can also decide on the architecture you use. For WordPress users, the latter is simple. You’ll use a plugin to implement the paywall, so this will dictate the architecture you use. In most cases, it will be a local setup. This means the functionality to lock content will live on your server. Cloud-based paywalls won’t, of course. As for the paywall model you choose, there are a few to note: Free trials. You’ll often sign up to receive a few days free of unrestricted access. From there, you’ll need to choose a plan. Subscriptions. This is the classic approach to gated content. You’ll ask the user to pay a set amount over a designated period for access to the content. Pay-Per-View. Some sites will let you purchase access to a single article, yet restrict the rest. It’s arguably the least sustainable paywall strategy, but it can help a user to read the content they want. Free trials
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Worldwide WordPress Virtual 5K Set for October 1-30, 2021 – WP Tavern
[ad_1] Automattic is organizing its 2nd annual Worldwide WordPress 5K during the month of October this year. Registration for the race is free and participants will have the opportunity to donate to a charity of their choice, with Automattic matching donations up to $50,000. Just like the first Worldwide WP 5K that was held in 2015, the race will be virtual. Anyone is welcome to run, walk, bike, or swim the 5K any time between October 1-31. The requirements are fairly loose in that you can use any exercise app to track your run if you want. Participants are also encouraged to share a selfie, a screenshot of your route, and write a blog post that includes the #wwwp5k tag. Automattic will use the hashtag to include pictures on the official race site. Throughout the pandemic, much of the social running industry has gone online and virtual races have become more common. Although they don’t carry the same energy as in-person races, virtual races help friends keep setting fitness goals and encourage each other through online challenges. Joining in the Worldwide WordPress 5K is a great way to connect with friends around the world for an offline challenge that benefits your health. There is plenty of time to start training to reach a goal ahead of October and lots of resources available for running your first 5K. If all other motivations fail, maybe Wapuu can get you off the couch. The lack of in-person WordCamps has left some people hankering for new WordPress swag, and the 5K wapuu is ready to deliver. Participants can choose from a wide array of official gear, including hoodies, t-shirts, water bottles, tank tops, pins, socks, and more. Those who prefer not to run but still want to take part in the charitable event can give directly through the donation page. Like this: Like Loading… [ad_2] Source link
Continue readingHow to Set Up an Email Address for Your Own Website Domain Name
[ad_1] Running a site often means branding it properly. The idea is to reach every nook and cranny with your site’s name, so that you’re visible to potential customers. You can inch towards this goal by setting up an email address for your own domain name. There are a surprising number of businesses that use third-party branding for email addresses, and this isn’t the most optimal choice. The good news is it’s not a hard task, and you can still use your favorite email client to boot. In this post, we’ll look at how to set up a dedicated email address for your domain. First, let’s get into why this is a crucial element for your site. Why You’d Want to Set Up a Dedicated Email Address for Your Domain As we noted, branding is important for any site. You want potential visitors, readers, and customers to notice your branding wherever they see it. Lots of times, this is a visual element, such as a logo or specific stylistic aspect. There’s another element of your branding you may not have considered before: your email address. Think about the number of emails you send day to day, and what a johnsplumbing@gmail.com address says about you. In our opinion, it sends out the following messages: You’re not taking enough care in building your online presence. You don’t have well-rounded business sense, which tells a customer you may have neglected other areas of your business too. You’re positioning your email provider as the most important factor of your business. This might seem an extreme viewpoint, but it’s one of the first things a user will see when you’re contacting them. You are making it harder for a user to find you, even if they don’t know how to get in touch with you. Let’s give you a bit more insight into what we’re talking about. In short, if your domain name doesn’t feature in your email, it’s a missed opportunity. It speaks for your vision as a business owner that you’ll let Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo!, and others have prominent positioning in a primary branding area. What’s more, it doesn’t make your email address unique to your business. Your email has an indirect air of being like other email addresses. On the whole, setting up an email address for your own website domain name is a way to make you stand out. It’s an opportunity you should seize. Hosting Your Emails (And Why Your Web Server Isn’t the Best Choice) There’s an aspect of setting up a dedicated email address that warrants further discussion. Without custom branding, your emails will be hosted at one of the many different provides available. We’ve mentioned Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo!, and there are countless more. When you switch to custom branding using your own website domain name, it would seem ideal to host emails on your server. After all, your site is hosted on the server, and if your emails end with the domain, they should too. This, for all its base logic, isn’t the best solution. Here’s why: Emails hosted on your server will be subject to the same fundamental security as your site. This may or may not be a good thing depending on your host. Deliverability suffers a lot from hosting emails on your web server. Spam filters are also not as efficient as other dedicated tools. There’s a User Experience (UX) deficit too. Many web hosts use robust open-source solutions to manage email (such as Horde or Roundcube). Though, the UX is often set by the web hosting control panel, and it lacks compared to modern providers. While you could run this email through a more suitable Graphical User Interface (GUI), the other drawbacks don’t make it viable. Our advice is to use a dedicated provider for your email, and let them handle it. Your sanity and deliverability rates will thank you. How to Choose the Right Username or Identity For Your Email Address Before we get into the technical nature of setting up an email address for your own website domain name, let’s give you some advice on choosing a suitable username. Of course, your domain name is set, so the username is where variety, uniqueness, and creativity come in. You can set the username based on your business ethos. For example, if you’re a serious and professional company, a simple info@mybusiness.com makes sense. In contrast, if you have a quirky element to how you present, hello@mybusiness.com would work. Of course, these can be adapted based on your desires. For example, “hey”, “contact”, your name, and “inquiries” are all viable options. Our advice is to keep things specific to a certain extent, and set up multiple email addresses for different tasks. For example, you could cover payments, support, sales, and more using dedicated emails. With the advice we offer in the next section, you can route mail from each of these addresses to a central inbox, so there’s no need for multiple accounts. How to Set Up an Email Address for Your Own Website Domain Name Next up, we’ll get to the technical information on how to set up an email address for your own website domain name. Because there are myriad combinations of registrar, web host, and Content Delivery Network (CDN), we won’t give you an exact process for one of them. Instead, we’ll offer the following steps: Throughout, we’ll highlight services that may be unique, or whether you may have a different experience with a certain combination of tools. 1. Set Up a New Email Address Using Your Domain First off, you need to create an email address using your domain within your host, or with an email provider. With some hosts this is simple (or at least possible). With managed hosting providers such as Kinsta, WP Engine, and others, there’s no way to create email accounts and addresses with them. This is because of the security and performance aspects we discussed earlier. It’s functionality some hosts stay away from,
Continue readingWordPress.com Growth Summit Set for August 17
[ad_1] Hey, WordPress fans. We are checking in with your latest dose of weekly WordPress news. This week, WordPress.com announced the schedule for the second annual Growth Summit. The virtual conference will be held on August 17 in the Americas and EMEA and on August 18 in the Asia Pacific. Beyond that, a new version of WooCommerce Blocks has been released with several enhancements and bug fixes. We also have a lot of news and tutorials for you. Let’s get to all of this week’s WordPress news… WORDPRESS NEWS AND ARTICLES TUTORIALS AND HOW-TOS RESOURCES [ad_2] Source link
Continue readingWordCamp US Online Set for October 1
[ad_1] Hey, WordPress fans. We are checking in with your latest dose of weekly WordPress news. This week, there has been some talk within the community about returning to in-person WordPress events in limited locations. Meanwhile, the WordCamp US Online schedule is released. The free one-day conference is set for October 1, 2021. Beyond that, the first beta release of WooCommerce 5.6.0 is out with some new features for store owners, and we have some great tutorials and resources for you as always. Let’s get to all of this week’s WordPress news… WORDPRESS NEWS AND ARTICLES TUTORIALS AND HOW-TOS RESOURCES [ad_2] Source link
Continue readingWordCamp US Online Set for October 1, 2021, as Community Team Weighs Proposal for Returning to In-Person WordCamps – WP Tavern
[ad_1] WordCamp US will be held online this year on October 1, 2021. Organizers are planning a free, one-day event that will feature networking opportunities, speaker sessions, and workshops. Michelle Frechette, one of the organizers, said the team is planning on hosting a contributor day and will add more information to the event’s website over the next few weeks. In August, WCUS will send out the calls for speakers, sponsors, and volunteers. Planning for the 2020 virtual WCUS ended up as somewhat of a debacle after organizers decided to cancel due to pandemic stress and online event fatigue. The cancellation came after volunteers had already invested hundreds of hours of free time in planning the unfortunately timed event. Outbreaks in the US were worsening and political tensions were at an all-time high ahead of what went down as one of the most contentious presidential elections in US history. Bringing back WordPress’ flagship WordCamp as an online event was a necessity in 2021, as COVID-19 cases rise and ICU’s are filling up in US hot spot regions where vaccination rates are lower. The delta variant has thrown the world another curve ball in what has become one of the most stressful and traumatic 18 months in recent memory. Despite the continued public health crisis, the WordPress community is eager to restart in-person events. Rocio Valdivia published a proposal today, summarizing the Community Team’s discussions on how to establish a path for returning to in-person WordCamps. The proposal is based on using the current guidelines for meetups with a few additional guidelines pertinent to WordCamps. It uses the same decision-making flow chart that applies to green lighting in-person meetups: After these guidelines for meetups were announced in early July, in-person meetups have been held in six countries, including Russia, US, New Zealand, Uganda, Australia and the Netherlands. “Resetting expectations for WordCamps may be necessary, as the world has changed significantly,” Valdivia said in the proposal. “This is a great opportunity to rebuild the program by restarting locally, and then building back up to the levels we had in 2019.” WordCamps had mostly fallen into a fairly predictable format before the pandemic, but the Community Team is now keen on organizers experimenting with new formats and content. One example suggested in the proposal is delivering WordCamp content entirely online, followed by an in-person social gathering, for a more inclusive experience that makes it possible for those who cannot attend to participate in the educational aspects of the event. The Community Team is embracing the current hardships as an opportunity to improve WordCamps and rekindle the community spirit after such a lengthy absence from in-person events: Additionally, the normal WordCamp application process requires that there be an active local community in place. As the community has faced many changes this year, Deputies are thinking about how to handle this requirement. One possibility could be more flexibility with WordCamp applications, allowing communities that had a meetup pre-COVID to host a WordCamp, even if they weren’t as active in the last year, to help build excitement and restart community activity again. The proposal includes a list of more practical considerations, such as securing fully-refundable venues, providing individually-packaged food instead of buffets, and limiting capacity to provide for social distancing. It also notes that WordCamps taking place during this transitional period would need to be prepared to cover 100% of their expenses, as WordCamps are currently exempt from the 2021 Global Sponsorship Program. Inclusion in the Global Sponsorship Program will be reconsidered once WordPress returns to in-person camps in all regions. The Community Team is inviting feedback on the proposal, which is still under active discussion. If you have ideas that you think should be included in the guidelines or suggestions for this transition period for in-person WordCamps, leave a comment on the proposal. Like this: Like Loading… [ad_2] Source link
Continue readingHow to Set Your Site Icon (Favicon) in WordPress • WPShout
[ad_1] One thing every WordPress site should have is a site icon, also called a “favicon”—the little tiny image that shows up in your browser tabs to let you tell one site from another. Ours at WPShout is a orange circle with a bullhorn inside it, so you which tabs are us. For the more visually-inclined, here’s a relevant summary image of a site icon: Image illustrating a site favicon taken from WordPress itself, because they illustrated it so well ☺️ This video Quick Guide walks you through how to change your WordPress site icon. It’s easier now than ever, because WordPress has embedded this feature right into the Customizer. And WordPress’s standard site icon uploading process has you covered for all the less common uses for favicons (such as serving as retina-ready desktop app icons if someone saves a shortcut to your site onto her iPad homescreen). Here’s my video guide on how to set your site icon in WordPress: And here’s our text guide to the same information: How to Change the Site Icon of Your WordPress Site Collect the image that you’ll use as your site icon (if it’s not already on your WordPress site). Open the Customizer in WordPress. You can click “Customize” along the top bar (if you’re viewing pages on your site), or “Appearance > Customize” in the left-side menu (if you’re in your WordPress admin area). Open the “Site Identity” panel by clicking it from the initial listing panel. Open the “Site Icon” section. If it hasn’t been used before on your site you’ll click the “Select Image” button. There you will select an image already in your image library, or have the ability to upload a new one. (If you’ve ever used WordPress’s media library, this screen should be familiar.) You will have the ability to crop the image. If it was square, you’ll probably skip this by clicking “Crop Image” without resizing the selection box. (If you do need to crop, drag away.) With that, you’ll be set. Your browser tab may immediately update with the image. If it doesn’t, but you see something like this, you’re set: (Browser caching can be hard to debug, but refresh may fix it for you.) 🙂 And that’s how to change your WordPress site icon! Streamlining this process has been one of the default Customizer’s sweetest features. Let us know if you have any questions—we’re happy to help. [ad_2] Source link
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